Intercultural Transfers and the Making of the Modern World, 1800-2000: Sources and Contexts

168 Pages·2011·1.111 MB·English

by  Thomas Adam

“An exemplary set of case studies in transnational history.” – Ian
Tyrrell, Scientia Professor of History at the University of New South
Wales, Australia
For far too long, the history of the modern era has been written as a
history of isolated nation states. Intercultural Transfers and the Making
of the Modern World challenges a nation-centered account: exploring
the interconnected and interrelated nature of societies in the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries.
Presenting both interpretation and primary source documents, this
book introduces both the methods and materials of transnational
history. Case studies highlight transnational connections through the
examples of cooperatives, housing reform, education, eugenics and
nonviolent resistance.
By embracing the interconnected nature of human history across
continents and oceans, and by employing the concept of intercultural
transfer, Thomas Adam explores the roots and global distribution of
major transformations and their integration into local, regional, and
national contexts.
This is an invaluable resource for the study of global, world, and
transnational history.
Thomas Adam is Professor of History at the University of Texas
at Arlington. He is the author of Buying Respectability: Philanthropy
and Urban Society in Transnational Perspective, 1840s to 1930s and
editor of the three-volume encyclopedia Germany and the Americas:
Culture, Politics and History.
Intercultural Tr a n sf er s
a n d t h e M a k i n g o f
t h e M o d er n Wor l d ,
1 8 0 0 – 2 0 0 0
Sources and Context
THOMAS ADAM
© Thomas Adam 2012
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-0-230-24353-8 hardback
ISBN 978-0-230-24354-5 ISBN 978-0-230-35623-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-35623-8
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
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country of origin.
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface viii
Acknowledgments x
INTRODUCTION: THE NATURE OF INTERCULTURAL
TRANSFER 1
I.1 Transnational history versus national history 1
I.2 The history of an interconnected world 3
1 COOPERATIVES AND CAPITALISM:
THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE ECONOMY 8
1.1 The living conditions of working-class families
in the early nineteenth century 8
1.2 Better food and profi t sharing through consumer
cooperatives 9
1.3 The worldwide appeal of cooperatives 14
1.4 The fi ght against usury and for fi nancial
independence of farmers through credit unions 23
1.5 The cooperative lifestyle in the kibbutz 36
1.6 Conclusion 39
2 BETTER HOUSING FOR BETTER CITIZENS:
HILL’S WORLDWIDE APPEAL TO HOUSING REFORM 40
2.1 Industrialization and urban life 40
2.2 The beginnings of housing reform: George Peabody,
Sydney Waterlow, and Octavia Hill’s approaches
to housing reform 42
2.3 The worldwide appeal of Octavia Hill’s views 48
2.4 From friendly rent collecting to urban planning 54
2.5 Conclusion 59
v
vi CONTENTS
3 THE TRANSNATIONAL TRANSFER OF EUGENICS: BETTER
CITIZENS FOR A BETTER FUTURE? 60
3.1 The birth of eugenics 60
3.2 From eugenics to sterilization 63
3.3 Following the American Dream for the perfect society 71
3.4 Conclusion 76
4 MONTESSORI’S CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOOL REFORM:
FROM MEMORIZATION TO PROBLEM-SOLVING 77
4.1 The schools of the nineteenth century 77
4.2 Maria Montessori and her teaching philosophy 80
4.3 Friedrich Froebel’s kindergarten 87
4.4 The worldwide interest in Maria Montessori’s
teaching philosophy 90
4.5 Giving it a second try: Montessori’s teaching
philosophy and Cold War competition 106
4.6 Conclusion 110
5 CHANGE THROUGH NON-VIOLENCE:
THE RATIONALIZATION OF CONFLICT SOLUTION 111
5.1 The birth of Satyagraha 111
5.2 Coming home: Gandhi’s salt march 115
5.3 The appeal of Satyagraha beyond India 116
5.4 The fate of non-violent resistance in South Africa 123
5.5 The reading of Gandhi and the African-American
civil rights struggle 125
5.6 From Gandhi and King to the struggle of
Mexican-American farm workers for a fair and
humane treatment 129
5.7 Gandhi’s non-violence and the peaceful revolutions
of the 1980s 132
5.8 Conclusion 135
Suggestions For Further Reading 136
Bibliography 144
Index 153
List of Illustrations
1.1 Central premises, at Manchester, of the English
Co-operative Wholesale Society 13
4.1 Maria Montessori’s glass-walled classroom at
the 1915 Panama-Pacifi c International Exposition
in San Francisco 85
4.2 Locations of kindergartens in the United States,
1856–1900 89
vii
Preface
This book takes the reader around the world and traces the inter-
cultural transfers between societies and cultures across all
continents. Such an endeavor depends on the help and support of
many people and the cooperation of archives and libraries in many
countries. The Interlibrary Loan department at my university, The
University of Texas at Arlington, made sure that I received that
elusive copy of an important dissertation or MA thesis from New
Zealand as well as newspaper and magazine articles from India.
Without the Internet and the many publications available online
through national libraries and Google Books I would not have been
able to write this book.
Finding an online version of a text such as Seki Hajime’s Bunka
to ju¯taku mondai (Culture and the housing problem) was, however,
only the fi rst challenge. Language was the second. I would like
to thank Mamiko Ito for locating this text for me at the National
Library at Tokyo and Tomomi Hotaka for translating it for me. Some
of the sources used for the writing of this book come from archives
and libraries in the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia,
Japan, and Germany. In the case of the “TRAINING SCHEME FOR
WOMEN HOUSING MANAGERS IN SOUTH AFRICA” I would like
to thank Elri Liebenberg for obtaining this copy for me from the
South African Archives Bureau in Pretoria.
This book began with extensive and long discussions with Alfred
J. Andrea in 2007–8. Alfred helped me in shaping this project and
in turning the idea into a book proposal. I am extremely thank-
ful for Pierre-Yves Saunier’s help in establishing contact with Kate
Haines at Palgrave Macmillan, who encouraged me to pursue this
project and made the production of this book possible. The com-
ments of the anonymous outside reviewers helped tremendously in
shaping and extending my project beyond its original aim. I am very
grateful to all the scholars involved in the evaluation process. Their
comments and suggestions led me onto paths I had not considered
and made this book much more inclusive and broader in scope.
I would also like to thank my doctoral students Jacqueline Zeledon
and Bradley Borougerdi, who provided insightful comments that
helped me in bringing this manuscript to its fi nal shape.
viii
PREFACE ix
I would like to thank Richard Ungerer for helping me in obtaining
the permission to include excerpts from Nancy McCormick Rambusch’
book Learning How to Learn from Bob Rambusch. I am also grateful
to Vic Reyna for providing the image of Maria Montessori’s class-
room at the 1915 Panama-Pacifi c International Exposition in San
Francisco.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Mylynka Cardona, Imre
Demhardt, Robert Fairbanks, Margaret Menninger, Ashley Myrick,
Paul Rutschmann, and Scott Williams, who helped me through a
particular diffi cult time in my life.
Acknowledgments
The author and publishers wish to thank the following for permis-
sion to reproduce copyright material:
The National Archives and Records Service of South Africa for the
TRAINING SCHEME FOR WOMEN HOUSING MANAGERS IN
SOUTH AFRICA, attachment to the letter of M. E. Hurst dated May
19, 1937 (National Archives and Record Service of South Africa,
Central Archives Deport, Department of Health (GES) 361509/4).
Robert E. Rambusch for pp. 24–7 and 129–30, from Nancy
McCormick Rambusch’s Learning How to Learn: An American Approach
to Montessori, Baltimore: Helicon Press 1962.
The Navajivan Trust in Ahmedabad (India) for pp. 175–9, from
Mahatma K. Gandhi’s Satyagraha in South Africa (translated from
the Gujarati by Valji Govindji Desai), Madras: S. Ganesan 1928.
The Christian Century for the excerpt from Cesar E. Chavez’s “Letter
from Delano” which was fi rst published in the Christian Century on
April 23, 1969, p. 540.
Vic Reyna for the image of Maria Montessori’s glass-walled class-
room at the 1915 Panama-Pacifi c International Exposition in San
Francisco.
Jacqueline Zeledon for the map of locations of kindergartens in the
United States 1856–1900.
Every effort has been made to trace rights holders, but if any have
been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be pleased to
make the necessary arrangements at the fi rst opportunity.
x